Sanjay Singh, the chief inspector of Mumbai police was attending the science exhibition at his daughter’s school. His daughter was in 12th grade. Her science project was a model of a wireless communication system using light. It consisted of a tiny laser light connected to the output of an audio amplifier as the transmitter. The receiver was a light sensor circuit that was connected to a speaker through another amplifier. When someone spoke into the microphone at the transmitter, the audio could be heard through the speaker at the receiver. The project was purely for fun and had no practical significance. The transmitter and receiver needed to be in the line of sight to each other, and external light affected the performance of the transmission.
Sanjay got a call from the Mumbai police department when he was talking to his daughter at school. After hearing about the hijack of the plane and the demands of the hijackers, he was instantly about to leave, but he noticed something in the corner of the exhibition room. There was a poster titled, ‘Heat powered nano GPS tracker’ and a boy stood in front of it demoing his project to some people.
“Is he your classmate?”, he asked his daughter, pointing to the boy.
“Yeah, dad. His name is Ansh. He is the nerdiest person I have ever seen. Nobody likes him. If you try to talk to him, you will only hear science terms come out of his mouth”, she replied.
“Hmm”, Sanjay said and walked to Ansh. His daughter watched him walk to the boy as if he didn’t listen to what she said about him.
“Hello, your project seems interesting. Can you explain it to me?”, Sanjay asked Ansh.
“Sure, sir”, he replied, simultaneously turning behind to point at some technical drawings on his poster. “This is a nano GPS tracker. It is like the GPS device on our smartphones, just that it is extremely small and can be deployed in small spaces without any problem.
“The tracker is powered by a thin layer of Bismuth Telluride p-n junction that generates power from the surrounding heat. When one junction of the semiconductor is heated and-”
“Skip the technical details. Can you show me a demo?”, Sanjay interrupted.
Ansh turned back to Sanjay instantly. After a pause, he lifted a small glass container that was kept beside him and said, “You can see the device inside this. It is very small”
Sanjay could see a tiny black dot, smaller than half a millimeter inside. It was so small, anyone could misunderstand it for a speck of dust.
“You are telling me that is a GPS tracker?”, Sanjay asked.
“Hold this phone”, Ansh said and gave him his smartphone. It had the map application open. “Look at the pointer”, he said and ran outside with the nano GPS device. Initially, the pointer was stationary, but then it started moving. He looked out of the window and saw Ansh running away from him. The pointer accurately showed his position. When Ansh returned, he asked, “This is marvelous! How did you create this?”
“I only designed this. My dad is a Nanotech Engineer. He helped me manufacture it”, Ansh replied.
“You said it is powered by the surrounding heat”
“Yes”
“How hot does the surrounding need to be?”
“Above 35 degrees at minimum. Preferably above 40 degrees”
“Can it be powered by body heat?”
“Average body temperature is around 37 degrees so it should work”
“Wait here!”, Sanjay replied in excitement and ran outside the hall.
He called the police department. “I have a plan”, he said.

The prison bars opened with a thud and two policemen walked into the cell. The cell was completely dark and filled with an unpleasant odor. But the man inside seemed to be least bothered by all that. Abdul Khan used to be like a lion with his well-built muscular body and ferocious voice. Anyone dared not to come in his way. The same man now appeared skinny and weak. His tall frame turned short and he had lost one eye during his encounter with the police when he was caught. But the other eye still had the gaze of the lion he used to be before.
“Come out!”, one policeman yelled. He handcuffed Abdul and the two policemen dragged him with them. “Lucky for you, you are being set free”, one of them said.
As they walked through the corridor, many prisoners yelled at him, although it was not clear what they said. Half of them had gone mad and the other half waited for them to be hanged. As they were about to enter the jeep, a policeman walked towards them with a baton.
“This is a mistake. You don’t have any idea about the consequences of setting him free”, he said to the two policemen.
“Get out of our way. These are orders we have to follow”, one of them replied.
“This man is an animal. We all will die if he doesn’t”, the policeman said looking right into Abdul’s devilish eye.
One of the two policemen tried to get him out of the way, but he pushed him away and smacked Abdul’s forehead with his baton. Abdul fainted and fell to the ground with blood running out from his forehead. Before he could hurt him more, the two policemen caught him and dragged him away. Abdul lay unconscious on the ground but they couldn’t let him die. He needed to be handed over alive to the hijackers or hundreds on the plane would die.

Priti wrapped multiple bandages around Deepti’s waist and tried to prevent more blood from coming out.
“Priti, listen”, Deepti whispered. She struggled to bring each word out of her mouth. The pain in her waist was becoming unbearable but she somehow stayed conscious. Tears dragged the Kajal from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks forming a black line of terror below each of her eyes. But among all the pain and terror, her lips appeared fresh and deep red, like the red cherry on top of a cake.
Priti brought her ear close to Deepti’s lips.
“We have to stop these people”, Deepti tried hard to bring out the sentence.
“Are you crazy? How can we?”, Priti replied.
“Listen, we need to decrease the cabin pressure. You need to stop the oxygen masks from deploying. Slowly, everyone will lose consciousness because of hypoxia”, Deepti said.
“What are you saying? There are kids and old people onboard”, Priti whispered.
“That’s why we need to be quick. As soon as we see symptoms, we have to snatch the hijackers’ knives”
“You are forgetting that we will get hypoxic too”
“You need to get me an oxygen mask before that. Tell the hijackers my condition is getting worse so I need it. Once they get hypoxic, I will do the job”, Deepti said.
“You are crazy. You can’t even move. And we have no idea how many more of them are hiding among the passengers. Forget about it”, Priti said.
Suddenly an announcement came from the pilot.

‘Attention passengers, we will be landing at Mumbai International Airport shortly. Please don’t panic, we will get you out safely and arrange for further travel. Thank you’

“Did you decrease the cabin pressure already?”, Deepti asked Priti.
“No, I am still here with you”
“Then why am I-”
“Why are you what? Deepti?”

Deepti was not able to talk. She felt as if her ears were closing. Her vision started to become blurry. She started breathing heavily. Slowly Priti’s face faded away and everything became dark.

“Deepti, speak to me. Deepti!”

***
Deepti opened her eyes. The turbulence in the airplane was gone. Did I lose the sense of motion? She thought. She tried to move, but couldn’t. Her vision slowly started to recover, and so did her hearing. The plane was silent, just like before. The hijackers kept everyone quiet. But she could no longer hear the white noise from the air conditioning in the plane. As her vision got a bit clearer, she could see the white ceiling of the plane. But it seemed larger and flatter than before. She could move her fingers now. Priti? She wanted to call but couldn’t speak yet. She managed to move her head to search for Priti. Is she safe? She thought.
But there was nobody around her. No flight attendants, no passengers, and no hijackers. She could hear some beeps. She turned to the left. The cabin lights seemed to be blinking. She dropped her eyelids hard a few times to try to recover her vision fully. Finally, she could see. It was not the cabin lights. It was the light from the Electrocardiogram. She was in a hospital.
A nurse came in running with a syringe in her hand. Deepti was scared of injections. She wanted to scream seeing the large syringe but still couldn’t speak. Her heart rate increased, which was clearly visible on the ECG. The nurse came closer and checked her vitals on the device beside her. Then she lifted the syringe and pushed the plunger a bit. Two drops of yellow liquid dropped down from the needle. Deepti wanted to run away, but what could she do? The nurse inserted the syringe into the hanging bottle of glucose and pushed all the fluid into it.

The nurse smiled at her. “Hey, how are you feeling?”, she said softly.
“Wh-where am-”, Deepti managed to bring out broken words from her mouth.
“You are in Caramel Hospital in Mumbai”
“What happ-”
“No, don’t try to talk now. You will be fine. Your relatives are on the way to see you. Everyone who was on the plane is totally fine. Nobody was injured, except you. Thanks to your friend, she did take really good care of you up there”
“How?”, she finally spoke a full word.
“The hijackers were given what they wanted. The plane landed safely in Mumbai and the hijackers got away. Now no more talking. You need rest”
“What did they want?”, Deepti spoke anyway.
“Abdul Khan”
Deepti’s arms produced goosebumps, and she felt a chill.
“He got away?”, she almost yelled.
“Yes”

Deepti suddenly woke up in the middle of the night with terror in her eyes. The lightning roared loud with bright flashes of light outside the window. After that, the sound of raindrops took over. She was no longer in the hospital. She was at her sister’s home now. But what happened till now was no dream. She was recalling the events that happened two weeks ago. The pain in her abdomen was still present, but much less than before. She could not imagine the consequences of setting Abdul Khan free. She looked around as if Abdul was hiding inside. She was scared, as well as angry. He was the man she hated the most. Because she considered him responsible for her mother’s death four years ago.

She spent the entire night rolling left and right, with the blanket twisting tighter around her every time. That night she truly felt lonely. Her sister slept with her family in the other bedroom, but to Deepti, it was an empty house. “Dad, I want to come to you”, she whispered.
She started feeling sleepy early in the morning. But suddenly her sister Aarti came running into her room.
“Deepti, why are the police looking for you?”, she asked with heavy breaths.
“What?”
“They are waiting for you outside”
She walked outside in her night dress, rubbing her left eye with her finger.
There were two policemen and an SUV standing in front of the building gate. Their expression said, who the hell sleeps until this time? But they didn’t say it out loud.
“Ma’am, you have to come with us”, one of them said.
“What happened?”, Deepti asked.
“You’ll be detailed about that later”
“You can’t take her without giving a reason”, Aarti screamed at them.
“It’s an emergency, you have to come with us. That's all I can say”
“That's ridiculous! She will not come with you unless you tell us the reason”, Aarti said.
“I will go”, Deepti said calmly.
“What? How can you…”, Aarti was surprised. Was Deepti talking in her sleep?
“I will go”, Deepti repeated, still calm.

The SUV traveled through the traffic and then by a seemingly never-ending compound. It finally entered a large red gate which had the text, ‘Defence Research and Development Organization’. Her phone and smartwatch were taken away and she was taken into a waiting room. There were three other people there. A woman in her late 20s, a seemingly retired man, and a kid with a college ID around his neck. The name on the ID was Ansh. All of their faces said, What the hell is going on? But nobody spoke to each other.
The waiting room was just like the living room of any common household. There was a sofa and a circular tea table at the center. Another table was in one corner with a beautiful flower vase and a warm white lamp on top. A water dispenser was placed beside the table, and a 32-inch television was mounted on the wall. An essential oil diffuser was kept near the door that filled the room with a pleasing aroma.
A middle-aged woman suddenly walked in. She had black curly hair and wore a white lab coat. A pair of frame-less spectacles rested on her nose and her lips were covered in a shade of deep red lipstick.
“Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Susheela Chaudhary”, she introduced herself. “Please follow me to the conference room”
“Can you tell me what the hell is going on? I was dragged to this place in the middle of my class”, the retired man told in a loud tone.
“Just follow me”, Susheela replied without even turning back.

Before entering the conference room, they were made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The conference room had over ten other people, most of who were scientists. Every one of them had a serious face, most didn’t even bother to lift their heads to see who entered the room. They typed on their laptops at full speed. The most dominant sounds in the room were from the keypresses, mouse clicks, and the air conditioner. Five of the seats were empty with a water bottle, a few sheets of blank paper, and a pen in front of each of them. They took four of those seats and Susheela walked to the front to start her presentation.
Two white spheres appeared on the screen.

“Hi everyone, I’m Susheela. I know you have been brought here without any explanation. I apologize for our behavior, but we needed to keep every detail about this confidential. We don’t want the public to panic before we have a solution to the problem I’m going to talk about”, Susheela said. Her last sentence immediately grabbed the attention of the four visitors.

She continued, "We are going to give you a highly classified piece of information. Before I begin, I'd like to remind you that the topic is highly sensitive and should not go outside this room. Not even to the other scientists and engineers at DRDO. Am I clear?"
Three of them nodded. The retired man stared at her with a disinterested face.

“This”, she pointed at the two spheres on the screen, “is the double-neutron star system we call N-2-92 system. It is five hundred light years from the solar system. If you see them through the James Web, they will appear as two neutron stars revolving around each other. But our simulations indicate that they collided with each other about four hundred years ago and formed a black hole. When the collision happened, and the black hole was formed, a powerful beam of gamma-ray burst out of the two poles. One of the poles is facing the solar system. So the gamma-ray is headed for us and will reach here in about a century, or possibly sooner.”

“And you’re saying all that from a simulation?”, the retired man asked in a calm tone. He seemed to be least interested in the topic. Throughout Susheela’s talk, he looked at his watch three times.

“Firstly, let me tell you that the simulation is highly accurate and was performed by some of the most experienced and qualified scientists in India”, Susheela said. Dr. Ram, who was in the room, adjusted his necktie and cleared his throat.
Susheela continued, “And the second thing is, gamma rays travel at the speed of light. The moment we see the collision from the earth through the telescope, the gamma rays will arrive. Right now, simulations are the only way to confirm the event. From our calculations, the gamma ray will be twenty light-years across by the time it reaches the solar system. The entire solar system will be inside the beam. NASA, ESA and other research centers around the world have confirmed the results too.”

Deepti couldn’t understand half of the things they were talking about, but she knew Susheela didn’t tell the whole story yet. She knew Susheela was about to give bad news.
“What are we looking at?”, the woman who was in her late 20’s asked.
“We will provide you with a report of the details soon. But, in short, we are looking at mass extinction”
All four of them gazed into Susheela’s eyes as soon as she delivered the last two words.
“50% of human species, 100% of plant species, and 80% of other animal species in the first couple of months after the gamma-ray strike.”
Ansh opened his mouth to ask something, but Susheela continued.
“And almost 100% of humans by the end of the first year”

Continued in chapter 4...


© arpan